My friends and I have been texting each other non-stop, all summer long, saying that we just couldn't wait to be living with each other. We would get so excited coming up with all of the meals we were going to cook, decorating and all of the fun things that come along with living on your own. Unfortunately, we didn't anticipate the not-so-fun things that come along with moving away from your parents.
For instance, today we came home from a long day of sorority obligations and were prepared to open the door and sit on the couch for the remainder of the day. This was not the case. We walked into our home with the thermostat set on 80 degrees in the middle of a Louisiana summer. For anyone who knows what that's like, this is not an ideal situation. We immediately just looked at each other for a minute and had no clue what our next move should be. Do we call someone? Is there a button that we press to get it started again? A switch that needs to be flipped? We really couldn't tell you. Due to our lack of knowledge, we sat in our house for two days drenched in sweat.
It doesn't stop there. Sadly, the people living here before us left all of their trash in the back-yard for us to take to the curb. At first, we didn't want to even look at it. Luckily, we finally built up the courage to take it to the front. With spiders crawling all over the trash can and sweat dripping down our backs we lugged the random people's trash to the curb. Going on with our lives, we ate dinner and went to sleep. The next morning, we look into our front yard to find trash scattered everywhere. We wondered what possibly could've happened until it finally hit us. A raccoon. A raccoon had attacked the random people's trash that we took out. We then spent our morning picking up trash that did not even belong to us.
The journey still continues and I know that there are a lot of memories to be made, but I don't think everyone really takes into account how hard it is to go from being taken care of by your parents, to doing everything for yourself. From the AC to the raccoon issue, to Alfredo exploding on the stove and spending $100 on groceries. These may seem like the simple things in life, but it just goes to show you that we're not super-heroes.
Living with your friends is fun and all, but never take for granted the times that you've spent being taken care of by your family. To your surprise, you will definitely miss it.
